Sarah Setlaelo

Dr. Sarah Setlaelo is a writer with a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Setlaelo was a recipient of the Harvard South Africa Fellowship (2024/2025) from the Harvard University Center for African Studies, as a visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She specializes in political, social, feminist and comparative philosophy, gender and race. Her research work in feminist theory and philosophy is rooted in her Masters dissertation “Conceptions of Freedom in South African Feminisms” (2021), and her PhD thesis, “Existential Phenomenology of Black Female Difference: Extending the Reach of Mabogo Percy More’s Politics of Being” (2023). Published peer-reviewed articles include “Black Women’s Hair Consciousness and the Politics of Being” (2022); “Mabogo Percy More’s Concept of the Oppressed Oppressor and Intra-Racial Sexism” (2023); and “Black Feminist Transcendence Framework: Mabogo P. More’s Politics of Being and Intersectionality” (2025). She is the guest editor of a South African Journal of Philosophy (2025, Volume 44, Issue 3) Special Issue on the thought and works of South African philosopher, Mabogo Percy More. Additionally, she has a published book chapter titled “Stella Nyanzi the Activist-Philosopher” in Gender and Feminist Meditations on Women’s Political Participation in Africa (2025, UJ Press). Setlaelo additionally holds qualifications in African Feminist and Gender Studies from the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), and the Advanced Course in Thought Leadership for Africa’s Renewal from the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs (TM-School). Her current research and writing projects include a scholarly study of African and African Diaspora political leadership and its philosophical underpinnings; and a fiction philosophical novel on feminist political leadership. Thought pieces and op-eds on gender, race and politics for South African media platforms, Mail & Guardian, News24, and Daily Maverick, as well as the American Philosophical Association Blog (APA Blog), are her contributions to public philosophy.